B0332 - Aesthetics of the Landscape: Images and Figures of Thinking

Academic Year 2022/2023

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Cesena
  • Corso: Single cycle degree programme (LMCU) in Architecture (cod. 0881)

Learning outcomes

The study of the evolution of the concept of landscape and its aesthetics is studied through the analysis of the thought and work of philosophers, artists and theorists of different forms of expression who have dealt with museums, architecture and the image. The formative objective of the teaching is to direct students in the search for issues of reflection and critique on the relationship between built architecture, museum and the imaginal dimension.

Course contents

The objective of the graduate laboratory is to provide students with a formative, conceptual and figurative mode regarding the invention and development of an architectural project understood as part of a city. This approach to design invention involves the acquisition of the relationships between theory and design, through which the student can acquire the awareness necessary for the development of a design theme considered in its various relationships. In this way the student learns how to intervene autonomously and responsibly within a complex architectural and urban reality with the awareness that any transformation of reality requires critical reflection, at once technical, ethical and aesthetic. The Aesthetics course, in particular, aims to provide and analyze some key concepts and figures of thought related to the relationships between architecture, museum and image:

1. Urban landscape

2. Memory and the museum

3. Anthropogenesis and imagination

4. Uncanny and architecture

5. Images, things, collections

Readings/Bibliography

Based on the identified key concepts, the reference texts are:

1. Urban Landscape: Estetica e paesaggio, edited by P. D'Angelo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009; G. Simmel, Filosofia del paesaggio (1913), in Id., Il volto e il ritratto. Saggi sull'arte, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1985, p. 71-83; S. Kracauer, Dalla finestra, in Id., Strade a Berlino e altrove, Bologna, Pendragon, 2004, p. 55-57.

2. Memory and Museum: Dizionario della memoria e del ricordo, edited by N. Pethes, J. Ruchatz, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2004 (passim: the entries on memory and museum).

3. Anthropogenesis and imagination: G. Rigal, Il tempo sacro delle caverne, Milano, Adelphi, 2022; H. Blumenberg, Uscite dalla caverna, Milano, Medusa, 2009.

4. Uncanny and Architecture: S. Freud, Il perturbante, in Id., Saggi sull’arte, la letteratura e il linguaggio, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1996, p. 267-307; M. Fisher, The Weird and the Eerie. Lo strano e l’inquietante nel mondo contemporaneo, Roma, Minimum Fax, 2018; A. Vidler, Il perturbante dell’architettura, Torino, Einaudi, 1989 (in particular, the parts on Simmel, Kracauer, Benjamin).

5. Images, things, collections: Teorie dell’immagine. Il dibattito contemporaneo, edited by A. Pinotti and A. Somaini, Milano, Cortina, 2009; R. Bodei, La vita delle cose, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009; C. Severi, L’oggetto-persona, Torino, Einaudi, 2018; W. Benjamin, Tolgo la mia biblioteca dalle casse (1931), in Id., Opere complete, vol. 4, Scritti 1930-1931, Torino, Einaudi, 2002, p. 456-463 (e Id., § 4, Luigi Filippo o l'«intérieur», di Parigi, la capitale del XIX secolo (1935), in Id., I «passages» di Parigi, Torino, Einaudi, 2002, vol. 1, p. 11-13).

For an introductory overview of the basic concepts of aesthetics, the history of aesthetics and the aesthetics of architecture, see: Il primo libro di estetica, edited by A. Pinotti, Torino, Einaudi, 2022; F. Desideri-C. Cantelli, Storia dell'estetica occidentale. Da Omero alle neuroscienze, Roma, Carocci, 2020; Estetica e architettura, edited by E. Rocca, Bologna, il Mulino, 2009.


Teaching methods


The workshop will include a series of lectures and seminar activities on the theoretical and compositional content of the design theme. The lectures will be devoted to the museum theme considered in its historical, theoretical, typological and compositional aspects. Special attention will be devoted to the analysis of the relationship between theory and design practice present in some contemporary architects. There will also be lectures devoted to the analysis of some twentieth-century museums considered significant for design elaboration. The lectures will be complemented with seminars for collective discussion of bibliographic materials and the progress of design elaboration. A seminar to share the progress of the project activity will be held before the break in teaching activities scheduled for December. Deadlines and arrangements for submission of exercises will be communicated and better detailed at the beginning of the workshop. For the theoretical-critical development of the lab content, the project work will be accompanied by the input of the lectures provided in the lab. In particular, the lectures in the Aesthetics course will alternate between frontal presentations and seminar moments of analysis and discussion of texts and video material.

Assessment methods

The undergraduate laboratory "Architecture, Museum, Image" (C. I. 16 CFU, 192 hours) consists of: A) the characterizing teaching of Architectural and Urban Composition (8 CFU, 96 hours); B) a teaching of Theories and Techniques of Architectural Composition (4 CFU, 48 hours); C) a teaching of Forms and Techniques of Architectural Structures (2 CFU, 24 hours); D) a teaching of Landscape Aesthetics and Figures of Thought (2 CFU, 24 hours).

The eligibility test for the Graduate Laboratory "Architecture, Museum, Image" includes verification of the learning of the contents of all its component teachings and is conducted in a single examination.

For the Graduate Laboratory, the teaching regulations stipulate that a verification of students' suitability to begin the preparation of their Graduate Thesis is carried out. Both the progress of learning and the development of the design theme will be checked during the course of the lab through periodic reviews. The verification of suitability is carried out in a single test, common to all modules of the laboratory, placed at the end of the course of the laboratory. The purpose of the verification is to ascertain the individual level of learning achieved, with regard to the content of all the modules/teachings that make up the Laboratory (C.I.).


The verification of the learning of the topics of the laboratory will concern the evaluation of three aspects: 1) evaluation of the project papers; 2) evaluation of the exercises completed during the year; 3) evaluation of the knowledge of the theoretical issues covered in the laboratory.

Teaching tools

The lecture material presented in class will be made available to the student in digital format, or delivered directly to the classroom, as will be indicated during the course. The laboratory has its own space for classroom exercises. Teaching support: model lab, PC, digital video projector, audiovisual tools and products, printers and plotters.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Borsari

SDGs

No poverty Good health and well-being Quality education Responsible consumption and production

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.